Most common uses of PONER

As it turns out PONER doesn't just mean "to put" but also five or six more different things. Here is a summary.

1.Poner means 'to put' which is the most common. This is your verb which you can treat like any other verb.
     Yo pongo mis libros en mi mochila - i put my books in my backpack
     Mis amigos ponen sus cosas en la mesa My friends put their stuff on the table
     Donde pongo esto?  where do I put this?
          

2. Poner means "that something makes you or someone sick, feel bad about certain part of your body.
     La lechuga me pone mal del estomago
     La carne hace que mi pie se ponga rojo, hinchado
     El agua de la maquina me pone mal de la cabeza
     El olor me pone mal, me dan mareos - the smell makes me feel bad, dizzy

3. Poner means "to give an assignment or to have someone do something, get   myself to do something
     Te voy a poner a lavar los platos - I'll have you wash the dishes
     Vamos a ponernos a preparar el desayuno - Let's prepare breakfast
     Pon a tu hijo a hacer su tarea - get your son to do his homework
     Cuando no hay nada que hacer me pongo a leer un libro
     Ponte a estudiar muchacho - get studying boy

4. Poner means "to give as in to give it a name, a price, something on
     Ponle un nombre al perrito - give the doggie a name
     A juan le pusieron un apodo - Juan was given a nickname
     Le pusieron el precio de 40 pesos - They gave it a price of 50 pesos
     Al gatito le ponen un adorno - They put an adornment on the cat
     Le ponemos mucho interes - we give lots of emphasis on

5. Poner means "to set as in set the table, also to set up or set off
     Pon la mesa - set the table
     Ayudame a poner la mesa - help me set the table
     Yo pongo la alarma a las 5am - I set the alarm for 5am
     Yo pongo mis pagos en automatico - i set my bills on automatic
     La gallina pone huevos todos los dias a las 6am
     El carro se pone en marcha - the car sets off
     La operacion se puso en marcha ayer
    
6. Poner means "to invest, to contribute, to chip in
     Ponle dinero a la canasta - put money in the basket
     La familia Martinez le va a poner dinero al negocio
   
7. Poner means "to put it on
     Pontela bien - put it on right
     Ponle el gorro al bebe - put the hat on the baby
     Le pondremos adornos al arbol? Should we decorate the tree?
     Ponle salsa a tus tacos - add salsa to your tacos
     Yo le pongo salsa y cilantro a mis tacos - i add salsa and cilantro to my tacos
     Ella le puso queso a su burrito she added cheese to her burrito

So here concludes a summary of the most common uses of Poner. I know there are more but I think these will get you started. If there are questions or comments please send them my way.
    
     
     
      
    

Different uses of "QUE" in SPANISH

Most students know that QUE means "What". However many don't know many more key meanings of "QUE" let's take a peek at some of them.

QUE = that, which

• El perro que es mi amigo = the dog that is my friend
• El muchacho que va a la escuela = the boy that goes to school
• La sonrisa que trae felicidad = the smile that brings happiness
• La computadora que trabaja bien = The computer that works well
• La cancion que cantan todos los dias = the songs that they sing everyday

QUE = than

• Una pizza es mejor que un lonche = A pizza is better than a sandwich
• Juan es mejor que Ruben = John is better than Ruben
•  Una pluma es mejor que un lapiz = A pen is better  than a pencil
• Estudiar en la noche es mejor que estudiar en el dia = To study at night is better than studying during the day
• La playa es mejor que la alberca = The beach is better than the pool

PARA QUE = so that

• Trae agua para que tome = bring water so that he/she drinks
• Toma cafe para que despiertes = drink coffee so that you wake up
• Haz ejercicio para que pierdas peso = Do exercise so that you lose weight
• Duerme para que descanses = Sleep so that you can rest
• Come bien para que no te canses = eat well so that you don't get tired
• Prende la television para que veas el juego de futbol = turn on the tv so that you can watch the soccer game

 TENER QUE = have to

• Tienes que hacer la tarea = you have to do your homework
• Tenemos que estudiar = we have to study
• Teniamos que estudiar = we had to study
• Tuvimos que estudiar mucho = we had to study a lot
• Tuve que hablar con mi hijo = I had to talk to my son
• Tiene que trabajar mucho = he/she has to work a lot

 HAY QUE + INFINITIVO = Got to eat

• Hay que dormir temprano = got to sleep early
• Hay que leer libros = got to read books
• Hay que hacer cosas buenas = got to do good things
• Hay que comer bien = got to eat well
• Hay que ir a la escuela = got to go to school

ES QUE = it's just that

• Es que tengo mucho trabajo =  it's just that I have a lot of work
• Es que ella tiene que dormir = it's just that she has to sleep
• Es que era muy temprano = it's just that is too early
• Es que no quiere dormir = it's just that he/she doesn't want to sleep
• Es que no queremos ir = it's just that we don't want to go

I hope this provides with an insight into the many more uses of "QUE." I know there are more but these are the most common that are out there and are often missed.

Please post questions and comments

Stress and Accents in Spanish Words

Make sure to complement this video with the note right below, learn to classify Spanish words!

Accentuation and Stress in Spanish words

So I got a few requests to provide some direction on how to determine where the accent or stress go in Spanish words.

What I have here is a list of 'general rules' to help with accents.

First some basic concepts:

1. Most Spanish words have an accent in one way or another. Even if a word does not have a marked accent (the accent mark is called 'TILDE') or a tilde there is still a syllable that will stand out the most.

2. The idea of sounding syllables stronger than others is referred as 'Acento prosodico' (compare to acento ortografico, item 6 below, which includes the tilde). Every Spanish words have an 'acento prosodico' and if you are a native speaker you can, from experience, know where the accent lies in a word without a tilde.

3. Syllables that are stressed are referred as 'TONICAS' and those that are unstressed are referred as 'ATONICAS'.

4. These words for the most part do not have an accent: Articles (La, Los, El and Las) prepositions (a, de, en, por), adverbs (tan and aun), pronouns (yo, tu, ellas, se, les), other words such as que, quien, como, cuando and verbs in its infinitive state.

5. Tildes are not added to consonants!

6. There are rules that specify where the accent lies, this accent is referred as 'acento ortografico'. I have listed some of these rules below.

Acentos

In Spanish, words are divided according to where the phonetic accent lies on, for instance, AGUDAS is a group of words in Spanish for which the stress lies in the last syllable of the word (right to left), in LLANAS (OR GRAVES) the accent lies on the penultimate syllable, ESDRUJULA on the syllable before the penultimate and so forth.

Phonetic accents guide words into one of these groups and from there we can determine if a tilde is needed according to some confusing rules.

Let's see if we can make sense of these rules!

AGUDAS:  These are words that carry the stress on the last syllable (right to left) and end in 's', 'n' or a vowel. Some examples include reloj, balcón, razón and vas (notice how even though the stress relies on the last syllable, still reloj and vas do not have a tilde)

Notes:

-The 'on' ending is common and it almost always carries a tilde

-Words with a single syllable do not carry a tilde (monosyllable)

-Words that end in a diphthong o in 'n' or 's' proceeded with a consonant (this applies mostly for foreign words that are used in Spanish, i.e. robots) do not have a tilde

Some examples:

tos

pan

ya

pie

altitud

afinidad

ballets

LLANAS: These are words that carry the stress on the second syllable (right to left) and have a tilde if they DO NOT end in 's', 'n' or a vowel.

Some words include:

Bolívar

cárcel  

imbécil

débil

cárde

hábil

As a result, if they end in 's', 'n' or a vowel there is no tilde (but the second to last syllable is still stressed!):

crema

examen

salas

casas

lana

ESDRúJULA: A word that has the accent on the third syllable (right to left); these words always carry a tilde.

Some words include:

esdrújula

América

análisis  

Bélgica

bioquímica

SOBREESDRúJULAS: A word that has the stress on the fourth syllable (right to left); these words always carry a tilde.

Some words include:

véndemelo

corrígemelo

recomiéndasela

SUMMARY:

As you can see, most if not the entire set of words in the Spanish language have a stress in them. Some have a TILDE and others do not. THE BEST way to learn about stresses and marks is TO STUDY THE SPANISH VOCABULARY ACCORDING TO THEIR CLASSIFICATION, (i.e. agudas, llanas, esdrujulas y sobreesdrujulas), this will help A LOT in determining the stress in a word.

As always, send me your comments or questions,

Luis

Los Numeros DESPUES DE CIEN!

So you want to be able to learn and remember the numbers in Spanish that are greater than a hundred. You have studied them all but some how after a while you just forget.
What I am about to write is a bit of a strategy I use with my students to help remember the numbers that are greater than 100. Let's hope it helps you.

Some key ideas

1. In English we say 'one hundred and one' but in Spanish we don't add AND just 'one hundred one', so learn to not say this.
                    i.e. one hundred and one = CIENTO UNO

Reminder: One hundred in Spanish has two translations: CIEN and CIENTO, CIEN is for 'one hundred only' but CIENTO is for every thing else.

2. In Spanish we account for plural, in other words, if it is more than 'one hundred' then it is plural and we would be saying some thing like 'hundredS' or CIENTOS.
                   i.e. two hundred and one DOS CIENTOS UNO

3. Like English, in Spanish we say 'two hundred and five' or 'DOS CIENTOS CINCO in the same way (except for the AND and plural part).

4. The last key idea is to break numbers apart and put everything together.


238: 200 + 38 = DOS CIENTOS + TREINTA Y OCHO

864: 800 + 64 = OCHO CIENTOS + SESENTA Y CUATRO

2359: 2000 + 300 + 59 = DOS MIL TRES CIENTOS CINCUENTA Y NUEVE

13475: 13K + 400 + 75 = TRECE MIL + CUATRO + CIENTOS + SETENTA Y CINCO

215848: 215K + 800 + 48: DOS CIENTOS QUINCE MIL + OCHO + CIENTOS + CUARENTA Y OCHO

3659347: 3Mil + 659K + 300 + 47

(TRES MILLONES) + (SEIS + CIENTOS + CINCUENTA Y NUEVE MIL) + TRES + CIENTOS + CUARENTA Y SIETE

Do a lot more!

EL GANE una expresion

So I got a question about the sentence I posted in twitter: 'SIEMPRE NOS HACEN EL GANE'. Lets take a peek a bit.

As I mentioned in twitter, 'GANE' acts as a noun. 'El GANE' then means 'the grab', 'the abusive and advantageous behavior some times someone take over others', 'to have the eyes open and be opportunistic and act at the right time'. This is used widely and in many different situations.

For instance,

Let's say you want to buy something but don't have the money, you go to the ATM only to find that the item is sold, then you say 'somebody already got to it before i did' or 'somebody grabbed it already' 'somebody win me over for it' this is an expression that in Spanish we can say,

somebody me hizo el gane = somebody did me a win/beat me to it

Another example, something meaner, lets say that people send money to this old lady but the caretaker receives the money and steals some, for this we can say:

the caretaker grabs a bit of the money, or the caretaker takes advantage and bids away a bit of the money, or that the caretaker pulls away some of the money, this in spanish we can say: the caretaker le hace el gane with a bit of the money

In the sentence I wrote in twitter: SIEMPRE NOS HACEN EL GANE I was saying that 'they always beat us/take us for a ride

siempre = always

nos hacen = they do to us (hacen implies they do and nos to us)

el gane = the grab the win beat us to it, take advantage

EL GANE its an expression, practice it with with a Spanish speaker

The Weather

So here is a summary of common was to express the weather. Note that many of these will not make any sense! so you will have not memorize them. I will explain why in a bit.


The weather = El Clima or el Tiempo.

TIP: In Spanish we use 'HACE' to mean 'IT IS' whenever we want to say that 'it is cold'. This is confusing for a lot of students as they tend to translate 'IT IS' as 'es' which is by the way correct BUT not for this certain situation. So, here is my advise: just learn it this way: HACE=IT IS when it comes to the weather.

More Vocabulary:

Hace calor = it is hot*
Hace frio   = it is cold

These are the two most commonly used, but you can also say

Hace mucha humedad = it is humid, lots of it

Along with 'HACE' there is another word that is used a bit to express the weather: 'ESTA'. Esta means 'IT IS' and it is the third person conjugation of 'ESTAR'. We use ESTA in the following cases:

Esta frio = It is cold
Esta caliente = it is hot*

So when do I use 'esta frio' o 'hace frio'? NO DIFFERENCE! you can use either one. You just have to learn them well and not mix them, ie ESTA CALOR, bad!

Also, 'ESTA' is used to express the progressive or gerund as in 'IT IS RAINING' which means 'ESTA LLOVIENDO'. Remember that the 'ING' ending in English is expressed in Spanish by 'ANDO' and 'IENDO', ANDO for -AR ending verbs and -IENDO for -ER and -IR ending verbs. Because LLOVER end in ER then it becomes LLOVIENDO.

ESTA LLOVIENDO it is raining

ESTA NEVANDO it is snowing


*In Spanish we differentiate within the word 'HOT'.

HOT = CALOR: inside your car after the car has been exposed to the sun, it is 'heat like hot'

HOT = CALIENTE: this is when the heat, the sun or something is burning you up

For instance, if it is 50 degrees outside and you put on a few sweaters and a jacket you will feel the heat inside, CALOR, you will start sweating, but if youleaving that you sking is getting warm and hot and the temperature raises, now it is CALIENTE

I hope this helps, don't hesitate to connect